Quiz Show Deals Chopper Inventor One Heli Of A Fate

April 13, 2001|By Mike Conklin, Tribune staff reporter.

That "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" contestant Kevin Olmstead knew Igor Sikorsky invented the first mass-produced helicopter and thereby became the winner this week of the largest-ever game show prize ($2.18 million) seems almost, well, academic.

In the rush to discover more about Olmstead, a 42-year-old bachelor, we've learned that he: holds an engineering doctorate from the University of Michigan and two masters degrees in engineering from MIT; taught seven years at the University of Detroit Mercy; won $27,000 on three "Jeopardy" appearances; is best pals with previous "Millionaire" winner David Goodman; and is co-founder and chief financial officer for National Academic Quiz Tournaments, which produces and stages school quiz bowls for students.

Just for good measure, the company where Olmstead works in his day job as a senior engineer, Tetra Tech MPS in Ann Arbor, Mich., has as clients the U.S. Department of Defense and several aircraft-related firms.

Indeed, after Tuesday's airing of the program, the winner said he feared a question in an area that he would find really difficult, like pop culture or politics. But show producers obliged nicely, thank you, with something remarkably up his alley. Asking an engineer, especially one with military connections and a professional footing in the quiz business, who invented the helicopter is like asking Emeril who Chateaubriand is named for.

Meanwhile, lost in the shuffle?

Igor.

Sikorsky seemingly rates a better fate than simply being the answer to a game show question -- especially one that came off as a no-brainer (we could say something about "Millionaire" being desperate for a grand prize winner after 71 straight shows without one, but we'll leave such things to the reader's judgment). The life of the Russian-born engineer, who came to this country in 1919 at age 30 and died here in 1972, contains more than enough elements--foreign intrigue, Horatio Alger success, interaction with great historical figures -- for a made-for-TV movie.

In fact, the music of another Russian emigre to the U.S., the great pianist and composer Sergei Rachmaninoff, could be used as the score. Rachmaninoff was an early believer in Sikorsky's efforts in this country, investing $5,000 as seed money when the engineer formed his first company in 1923.

"The headquarters for [the company] was on a Long Island chicken farm," said William Tuttle, spokesman for the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp. "Then it was known as Sikorsky Aero Engineering Co., but he [Sikorsky] was so grateful at the support shown by Rachmaninoff that he listed him as a vice president."

Sikorsky had arrived almost penniless in the U.S. despite having gained an international reputation as an engineer in his native Russia.

Inspired as a young man by accounts of American inventors such as Thomas Edison, Henry Ford and Orville and Wilbur Wright, Sikorsky made his first breakthrough in 1913 by designing -- and flying -- the first multiengine airplane. But as a supporter of Czar Nicholas II, for whom he built 75 airplanes in Russia's fight against Germany in World War I, he was forced to flee after the Bolsheviks took power in 1918.

Though obsessed with building a helicopter while in Russia, he all but gave up on aviation in his first years in the U.S. He turned to teaching fellow Russian immigrants mathematics and astronomy. He also became a lecturer and, through contacts he made at his lectures, was eventually able to found his aircraft company with the financial help of Rachmaninoff and others.

Sikorsky built airplanes at first, and it wasn't until 1939 that he successfully got his first helicopter, named 29A -- the 29 stood for how many designs there had been, the A for America -- off the ground. While helicopters have become popularized in recent military conflicts as deliverers of destruction in the form of rockets and machine gun fire, the inventor had humanitarian intentions in mind.

"If a man is in need of rescue, an airplane can come in and throw flowers on him and that's just about all," he said. "But a direct lift aircraft could come in and save his life."

During his career, he befriended significant flight pioneers such as Charles Lindbergh, Eddie Rickenbacker, Anthony Fokker, Wernher von Braun and Orville Wright, who were known to consult with him at various times. He also corresponded regularly with people such as Dwight Eisenhower, Helen Keller, Lyndon Johnson, Eleanor Roosevelt and Boys Town founder Father E.J. Flanagan.

At Sikorsky today, Tuttle had this to say of the "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" question answered by Olmstead: "Let's just say it's one more uplifting experience for our helicopter company."